RESEARCH

ADVOCACY

Centres of excellence

The goal of JPGSPH is not only to impart knowledge – it also acts as a centre of excellence in knowledge creation through research and training that connects with practice. The School’s Centres of Excellence are the hubs for research practice. Critical and emerging developing country health needs are investigated to identify evidence-based solutions.

Established in 2008, CGSRHR focuses on research, policy, advocacy, and training activities in the arena of gender, sexual and reproductive health & rights (SRHR) in Bangladesh and the region. The Centre envisions an empowered Bangladesh where inequalities and inequities in gender, and SRHR have been overcome. CGSRHR works with the mission to promote a broad-based understanding of SRHR in Bangladesh, focusing on vulnerable groups and young people. The Centre’s academic, advocacy and capacity building pursuits reflect on the principle that realising and ensuring sexual and reproductive health is at the core of human rights and dignity.

Established in 2012, the Centre works towards evidence-informed, equitable and sustainable action towards universal health coverage (UHC) within the health systems. It serves both as a national and global catalyst for evidence-informed policy and practice, and the development of country-based cadres necessary to implement UHC. The Centre is affiliated with a broad coalition of partners within Bangladesh and beyond. It is working towards advancing practical efforts to accelerate UHC, and taking forward research projects in partnership with prominent academic and research institutions.

Established in 2013, the Centre for Urban Health and Equity focuses on inter-sectoral research, training, policy and results-based action. It is focused on health equity challenges of the urban poor, with a particular emphasis on urban health governance. CUEH serves as a knowledge hub on urban health equity with a specific focus on the social determinants of inequities in health, and the health systems issues of governance, information, human resources and service delivery. Through collaborative activities and joint learning, CUEH galvanises evidence-informed discourse and decision-making. The Centre supports partnerships and networking among government policymakers, private and public service providers, researchers and development partners. CUEH models good governance practices by embracing a participatory approach towards relevant sectors (ie, health, housing, transport, etc) and stakeholders (ie, development partners, local government, NGOs, etc), and applying evidence-based approaches to building consensus, aligning resources and coordinating action.

Bangladesh has successfully taken to scale a number of interventions that have brought innovative changes to health by implementing and translating evidence-based interventions into standard treatment protocols and policies. But, at times, it is hard to determine if interventions will be implemented efficiently and effectively. Even proven interventions are often slow to be translated into policy and implemented at scale. Thus, there is a lack of documentation on how lessons learned from previous experiences of adopting and scaling up interventions. Keeping this issue in mind, Centre of Excellence on the Science of Implementation and Scale-Up (SISU) was established in 2016 to generate evidence of successful interventions and share findings with relevant stakeholders for scaling up. Established in collaboration with James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University and UNICEF, the Centre aims to bridge the gaps and address the issues that will allow for successful scaling up and implementation of interventions.